Socialist Party of France

The Socialist Party of France (PS) is a social democratic political party in France, founded in 1969 as a splintergroup of the French Section of the Workers' International. In 1981, PS founder Francois Mitterand was elected President of France, and the party dominated the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993. Jacques Chirac and his conservative Rally for the Republic would dominate politics during the early 2000s, but the Socialists won control of the senate in 2011 and won the 2012 presidential election, with Francois Hollande being elected president. By the 2010s, however, the party was divided into several factions, including the social democratic "Royalists" (supporters of Segolene Royal) and "Aubryists" (supporters of Martine Aubry), the democratic socialist "Fabiusians" (supporters of Laurent Fabius and the New Socialist Party (supporters of Henri Emmanuelli), the eco-socialist caucus of Christophe Caresche, and the liberal Delanoistes (supporters of Bertrand Delanoe and Hollande). In 2016, the party held 292/577 National Assembly seats, 112/348 Senate seats, 12/74 European Parliament seats, 5/13 Regional Council seats, and 27/101 Departmental Council seats.